**The Evolution of Laptops: A Look Back**

In the past, laptops were nowhere near as good as desktops for most categories. They were way more expensive, had terrible battery life, and poor performance. However, a major step forward was taken towards creating a super portable laptop that could actually get real work done.

**The UX180P: A Unique Model from Vaio**

One of the craziest models that Vaio ever brought out was the UX180P. This is not a giant side kit, but a full-fledged Windows XP computer that was absolutely ahead of its time. With a touchscreen and stylus, it also had Wi-Fi and built-in cellular capabilities, as well as a fingerprint sensor in both a front and rear-facing camera.

**Innovation and Risks**

This weird little computer from 2006 totally had it when it came to innovation. Something like this didn't exist back then, and yet Vaio managed to include features such as cellular networks and fingerprint sensors that are still not standard today.

**The Vaio P: A Legacy of Innovation**

Fast forward to 2009 and the Vaio P was shipped with XP or maybe Vista at the time. However, someone had loaded up Windows 10 on it. This is a testament to the fact that these computers were capable of running more modern operating systems, despite being from an earlier era.

**Running Windows 10 on Legacy Hardware**

It's astonishing that someone managed to install Windows 10 on this Vaio P, which has a single-core Atom processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 60GB hard drive. This is a great example of how modern operating systems can run on older hardware, making it possible to breathe new life into legacy devices.

**Conclusion**

These computers from the past may not have been perfect, but they were certainly innovative for their time. They pushed the boundaries of what was possible in terms of design and functionality. Today, we need more innovation and willingness to take risks in laptop design, so that we can create something truly unique and special.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Hey guys this is Austin.Do you remember Vaio?Back in the nineties and 2000sSony absolutely crankedout weird but cool designs.Over the last few years thoughthings have been a littlebit quiet on and Vaio frontever since they went independent in 2014.That is until today withthe brand new Vaio SX14.Take one look at this redand yeah it looks dopehowever the rest of the build qualitysadly does not quitenotch up with the looks.Now sure it feels lightweighthowever it just doesn'thave that same premium feelas you would expect when you're payingupwards of $2000 for a brand new laptop.It's sturdy enough but put it side by sidewith one of my favoritelaptops of 2019 so far,the ASUS ZenBook S13,it's really no contest.The only advantage hereof the Vaio hardwarereally is just thatlightness but besides thatthis beats it in prettymuch every other aspect.Speaking of the ZenBook they do sharea very similar keyboard design.So not only do they have nice chiclet keysbut importantly theyalso have a lifted designso essentially when you closethe laptops they go flat.Okay, that's actually not whatI thought was gonna happen.(coughs)But when you open itup you get a little bitof an extra lift on the keyboardand this goes a long way in making it feela lot more comfortable,especially for longer typing sessions.Now I might sound like I'mbeing a little bit too negativeabout the Vaio but there aresome legitimate strengths,starting with the ports.This has more ports than anyother Ultrabook I've ever seen.So on top of three USBs, 3.0 portsthere's also not only a USB-Cas well as HDMI but there's ethernetand there's even a VGA porton a brand new Ultrabook in 2019.Yeah, that's a Japanesebusinessman's special.Like I was saying earlier thekeyboard does have a nice feeland you also do have afingerprint sensor on boardbut what I'm not a hugefan of is the touchpad.Now, yeah, it's nice tohave the physical buttonsbut this is just way smallerthan pretty much any modern laptopand it does date theseVaio just a little bit.Now, by default it does comewith a fourteen inch 1080p displaybut this red model is the hiring versionwith a full 4K panel.Now I'm usually not a huge fanof 4K displays on Ultrabooks'cause I find they usually havea little too much of a trade-offas far as battery life goesbut I will definitelyadmit this does look nice,super sharp, super crisp.Unfortunately though the battery lifeis not the strong suitof the Vaio, at all.Paired with a small batterythis just feels like a throwback.Now admittedly I do usethe computer fairly hard,so I've got the brightnesscranked almost all the way upand high performance mode onbut even so I'm only gettingabout three and a half hourson a charge with this guy.Pretty much every otherUltrabook out there,even when you'recompletely cranking it out,should give you atleast five to six hours,so that's something that I'mnot super thrilled about.It's just, it's definitely probably,the weakest part of this Vaio,just being totallyhonest, I mean its fine,it's usable if you're near an outletbut it's just really weird in 2019to have a laptop withthat little battery life.Thankfully performance is modern at least.So not only do you havethe latest 8th generation Core i7 on boardbut this guy's alsooutfitted with 16 gigs of RAMand a super fast one terabyte PCIe SSD.There's not doubt thatthis looks dope in redbut when you take it as an entire packagethe SX14 just falls behind.Not only is the battery life poorand there's some weird design decisionsbut most importantlyit is really expensive.This thing starts at 1300 bucksbut if you wanna get themaxed out version in redthat's going to cost you $2300.Put that side by side with the ZenBookand it's really no comparison.I will take this pretty much any dayhowever that got me thinking.Vaio used to be the undisputed champwhen it comes to weird and premium laptopsso what exactly happened?So as you might be able to tellsome time has passed 'cause we're waitingfor some old school Vaios toshow up straight from Japanbut there's some really,really cool stuff here.So first of all we have the Vaio X505.Now at first glance thiscould totally be a laptopthat's being sold todayhowever it actually came out in 2004.Yes my friends, we're got a Japanese copyof Windows XP loaded up on this bad boyand it's kind of awesome.Considering that this came out four yearsbefore the MacBook Air it'sactually not that far behind.Now, yeah the 10.4 inch displayisn't massive by today's standardsbut one of the cool thingsis that you actuallyget some king of interesting thinness.I mean this is honestlythinner than most laptopsyou can buy today and this wasway before the days of USB-C.I mean, look, this isliterally the Wi-Fi antennaeor the Wi-Fi card.Now my Japanese skillsaren't quite good enoughto figure out how to getthis thing over to Englishbut it does have awhopping 1.2 gigs of RAMwhich I think actuallysomeone paid to upgrade.Now as you might imagine,a laptop like this was not exactly cheap,even in Japan back in 2004.I mean what what theactual price on this guy?- Three thousand- $3000 new, and that wasback in 2004. (exhales)Yeah but hey it's okay,you've got a ten gigabyte harddrive, you'll be just fine.Update, I was wrong,20 gigabyte hard drive,that's where it's at right there.It's also surprisingly lightat just about two poundsand a lot of that is justthe battery in the back.A big part of that isbecause it is made outof a composite carbon fiber.Now when you look at this kind of stuff,sure $3000 was a lot back in the daybut you were legitimatelygetting somethingthat was way ahead of its time.Whereas the current day Vaio,I mean it's not a bad laptopbut you're still paying a premium pricefor something that's reallynot in that same kind of leagueof wow this looks likeit could be made todayif you ignore the fact itdoesn't have a touchpadand has a little nipple.Now as cool as this is weare just getting startedwith some of theseawesome old Vaio designs.Next up is the PCG-505 from 1998.Now, yeah this looks a bit onthe thicker and heavier sidecompared to stuff that's modernbut again this was the late nineties.This was absolutely tiny comparedto what most people we're(coughs) carrying around.Now sadly, this modeldoesn't actually function,although it would be cool if it didbut we can take a look at the hardwareand see just how farahead of its time it was.So not only do we have a USB-A port,which, believe it or not,for the late nineties was very impressive.We also have a series of other portsincluding my favorite, a little modemthat kind of pops into the side here.And on top of that if we popthe little side of the screen,we have a good old stylus.Now I know a stylus is not a touchscreenbut you could use this inconjunction with the touchpadto write the world'stiniest, little notes.Now if USB and FireWire aren't your thing,you could also get thisgiant dongle for it.Now this adds a ton of additional portsincluding you have PS2 you have VGA.Where is this plugged in?Wait, no it doesn't go in there.Oh actually, wait, oh I'm stupid.The cool part about thisis that this was very muchin an era where laptopswere nowhere near as good as desktopsfor most categories, right?They were way more expensive,they usually had terrible battery life,terrible performance butthis was a major step forwardtoward a super portable laptopthat could actually get real work done.It also had a Wi-Fi card on the side.Actually I have one here, don't I?So with this now we are onlinenot even having to useour super cool modem.Probably one of the craziest modelsthat Vaio ever broughtout was this the UX180Pand no my friends thisis not a giant side kit,this is a full fledgedWindows XP computer.Now if you wanna talkabout ahead of its timethis is absolutely it.Now again keep in mind we'retalking about 2006 here.We have a touchscreen with a stylus.It has not only Wi-Fi butalso built-in cellular.There's even a fingerprint sensorin both a front and rearfacing camera on this guyand we're talking about 2006.Now this is not exactlya blazing fast systemwith a Core Solo Processorand half a gigabyte of RAMbut when you considerjust the level of specyou're able to get in something this smallit's really impressive.I mean seriously, fingerprint sensorsare still a good thing tohave on laptops, alright.They are by no means ubiquitous in 2019and especially when you lookat stuff like cellular networksagain, that's something thatis not standard whatsoever yetand yet this weird littlecomputer from 2006 totally had it.I mean that, that's innovation dude,like there's no way ofgetting around that.This was so far ahead of its time.At least it camepre-loaded with Norton 2006so I'm sure that'll be very helpfulfor our ancient Windows XP install.Also fun fact, this was productplacement central in moviesback in the late 2000s.Not only was it in National Treasurebut it was even in Paul Blart: Mall Cop,you know, that famous American moviethat everyone is totallyin love with, right?So the next item is the Vaio Pwhich came out, for the record,ten years ago in 2009 and Ibelieve it probably shippedwith XP or maybe Vistaat the time but someone,whoever had this before us,loaded up Windows 10 on it.Man, you're gonna have to usethis for a week, you know.- What?- This is gonna be your newlaptop for the next week.It runs Windows 10,it has full up to datesecurity patches and all.What actually is this thing even running?We've got a blistering fast,single core Atom processor,two gigs of RAM as well asa 60 gigabyte hard drivebut I mean it doeslegitimately run Windows 10.I cannot believe someone did this.Like, I mean, that's so, like.It's actually, I will say one thing,a lot of these computers from this era,they shipped with Windows XPand they were Windows Visa compatiblebecause Vista was so muchmore heavy on the resourcesbut most of the time you canactually load up Windows 10on a Vista compatible machineand Windows 10 will actually run better.Which is pretty impressive consideringthat it's like 12 yearnewer operating system.Oh, we have Wi-Fi, itsees our Wi-Fi network.Dude this thing is so cool.I'm blown away this runs Windows 10.I legitimately thought wewere gonna turn this thing onit was gonna have Windows XP.And this thing even has decent ports,you have a pair of USB-As as wellas you can pick up a dongle which has VGAas well as ethernet on itand on top of all of thatit has a glorious ultra-wide displayway before LG ever made it cool.Now when these were all new Vaiowas known as a bit of aform over function company.Now Sony had a ton of cashand a ton of interesting ideasand a lot of these werelegitimately super uniquebut they also did havesome sacrifices right.But that's okay.Today when you look at laptopsthey're all so similar, right?I mean you get a slightly tapered design,you get a couple of extra ports.That makes it something unique.However back in the day,I mean something likethis just did not exist.Something like this didn't exist.I mean this stuff is so cool and I thinkthat's absolutely something we need todayin current PC design.More innovation, morewillingness to take risks.I mean that's absolutelygood for everyone.Also, this is still myfavorite thing ever. (laughs)This runs on just on XP man,how are you gonna complain about that?